Christmas Day

Christmas Day

12.31.2011

[1] I spent most of the day at Derek's and even had dinner there and then he brought me back home before he went to see his grandmother. Can we please by astounded by the fact that Derek is wearing American Eagle? Haha. His Aunt bought him that sweatshirt. 

[2, 3] My Grandmother teaching us a game called "500 Rummy". (I think that's what it's called. Haha.)

[4, 5] Pictures with my parents and then with my grandmother and siblings. 

[6, 7] More cards!

[8] My grandmother and I have matching hats! Ha, my Mom had bought me a purple jacket and a purple hat to go with it.

[9] For dessert I made a peppermint cheesecake that everyone ended up loving.

[10] New red flats that I got from my Mom that I can't wait to wear with everything!

[11, 12] I finally got the Wonderstruck perfume! I even got the lotion. My family also got me the new Taylor Swift live CD + DVD, the Fearless DVD and a Taylor Swift calender. 

[13] I got tons of books I've been wanting to read! I also got movies I've been wanting like "500 Days of Summer", "Country Strong" and "Funny Face".

[14, 15] I love our Christmas tree, I'm going to be so sad when we take it down. 

[16, 17] The card that Derek made for me! I love the fact that my boyfriend is going to school to study graphic design. 

I hope you all had a very Merry Christmas! Happy New Year!

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Christmas Eve>Christmas Day

Christmas Eve>Christmas Day

12.29.2011

When it comes to quality time with Derek, I always prefer Christmas Eve to Christmas day. Things are so much more relaxed and Derek and I have the tradition of baking cookies and watching Christmas movies with each other. It seems like just yesterday that Derek and I celebrated our first Christmas Eve together, it's hard to believe that last year was our second Christmas together and that this was our third! I enjoyed each moment we got to spend with each other. We opened up each other's presents first, I got him a new shirt from old navy, new moccasins (which I have to exchange because they are too small, ha), a stocking full of his favorite candy and "Evan Almighty", a book of pictures from the last year I got done at Target and I knitted him a scarf! Remember last year when Derek bought me that beautiful ring? Well, this year he did just as good! He got me a Frank Sinatra Christmas CD, two beautiful necklaces, and a kitten calender! He even made me a card using his graphic designer abilities. We then baked so many peanut butter and nutella cookies, it really was such a fun, laid back Christmas Eve. 

PS: Today is my moms 39th birthday! HAPPY BIRTHDAY MOM!

PS Again: Don't you love the pajamas I opened up from my parents on Christmas Eve? Haha

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Lace Dress

Lace Dress

12.28.2011

Dress: Forever 21, Tights: Hue, Booties: Xhileration, Bracelet: Target

This year I was intent on finding a lace dress to wear for Christmas. I was looking more for a loose fitted dress but came across this dress at Forever 21 for only fifteen dollars and tried it on and I loved it! I usually don't wear skin tight clothing but the lacy detail on the top of the dress made me want to give it a chance. The only thing I didn't realize is that you would be able to see the tights line through my dress on my stomach, but oh well, not a big deal. With my favorite booties and a pair of sheer lace tights I decided this was appropriate enough for Christmas. Nobody else in my family gets really dressed up for Christmas but if there's an excuse for me to dress up, I go for it! For some reason, a lot of these pictures made the dress look like there's a brownish tint to it, but there isn't. How did you guys dress up?

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Ginger Blobs

Ginger Blobs

12.27.2011

Cookie baking kind of turned into a flour fight.

This was supposed to be Santa. I'm an excellent cookie decorator. 

A few days before Christmas, two of my best friends came over to make gingerbread men. I bought all of the supplies, bought decorating icing and sprinkles and even got out the cut outs that were in our pantry. Then...I realized that I forgot to buy butter. Our foolish selves thought we could replace the butter with the "I can't believe It's Not Butter" we found in my fridge. It was the soft, spreadable kind and the recipe called for "16 tbsp.", the container read "about 30 tbsp" so we merely cut out half the butter and added it to our dough. Well, it turns out the dough never stiffened like it was supposed to. Ha, so we ended up with ginger blobs instead of gingerbread men. It  turned out to be just as fun decorating our blobs!  

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